The Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) has released its first Climate & Sustainability Report1, which highlights the efforts of 13 academic hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto to prioritize sustainability and climate action, as assessed by a recently-developed Sustainability Balanced Scorecard.
TAHSN is one of the largest academic health science networks in North America, with more than 92,000 staff and serving more than 8 million patients each year2. With size, scale and breadth, TAHSN seeks to demonstrate local impact and global leadership in climate resilience, and environmental stewardship.
“We expect that this scorecard will be a catalyst to spur action for an environmental crisis that is playing out every day in headlines around the world,” says Heather McPherson, TAHSN chair and president & CEO, Women’s College Hospital (WCH). “TAHSN and our member hospitals are taking a hard look at ourselves and pushing ourselves to do more.”
Inaugural report card
The report is the first of its kind for TAHSN with 13 hospitals measuring themselves against four perspectives, each with their own foci:
- Leading – organizational capacity, leadership and governance
- Caring – appropriate care and supply stewardship
- Building – infrastructure, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste
- Shaping – procurement and resilience to climate shocks and stresses
Scores were collected in September 2024. Each perspective identifies two objectives for a total of 8. Each objective incorporates a series of criteria to assess achievement. Organizations were scored on a green (achieved), yellow (partially achieved) and red (not achieved) scale.
The average score of participating hospitals was 3 green, 3 yellow and 2 red. No organization received the theoretical best score of 8.
Women’s College Hospital scores three green
WCH scored 3 green, 5 yellow and 0 red. Stand out areas were in the areas of appropriate care, procurement and resilient institution.
“Under the direction of WCH leadership and internal committees – Environmental Social & Governance Committee, Facilities Management Committee, Energy Working Group – we’re striving to make an impact towards a sustainable future,” said Lauren Seager, Director, Facilities and Operations at WCH. “We have already begun implementing plans to reduce waste, use less energy and lower water usage across the organization.”
WCH is committed to developing and executing on strategies to reduce environmental impacts and ensure regulatory compliance, in accordance with Ontario Regulation 25/23, as outlined in the 2024-2028 Energy Conservation & Demand Management Plan. Over the next five years, the target is to reduce the total energy usage by 15%.
Across the organization other sustainability initiatives have been implemented to make an impact:
- Paper towels made up 12.2% of total landfill waste at WCH. Waste bins have been replaced with paper compost bins in all washrooms, as paper towels can be collected with organics.
- Proper disposal of batteries is becoming a growing concern. To promote responsible battery disposal, WCH has implemented battery recycling bins near the service elevators on all floors of our building.
- In partnership with the Ganawishkadawe Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health, WCH has installed a medicine wheel and drying shed on the hospital’s green roof. This is used to grow and dry medicinal plants which are utilized by the organizations indigenous patients and community members.
- Facilities Management has implemented occupancy scheduled control to efficiently control the hospital systems during unoccupied mode which has significantly helped to reduce costs and energy consumption at the hospital.
- LED retrofit – in the process of converting all fluorescent lighting fixtures to LED fixtures through out the facility.
The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard was developed under the leadership of the TAHSN Sustainable Health System Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP was established in 2020 by the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) and the University of Toronto’s Council of Health Sciences (CHS) to collaboratively address the challenge of climate change in the health sector.
The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care is a multi-faculty academic unit at the University of Toronto, which serves as secretariat for the community of practice. Brittany Maguire, the managing director, and Fiona Miller, the director, led the development of the scorecard and report and have facilitated the CoP on various sustainability initiatives through working groups and pilot initiatives.
This is the second version of the scorecard and the first to be made publicly available. Another assessment is planned for 2025, to continue to monitor and drive performance, celebrate achievements, and share practices and learnings across and beyond the network.
References
1 – Maguire, B, Miller, FA. Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) 2024 Climate & Sustainability Report. Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. March 2025.
2 – Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN). TAHSN Impact Report 2023. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. August 2023.